Drawings and labeling

• Draw everything you see, as big as you can draw it, and use lines and dots.
  • Q: "Will diagrams in the worksheets be graded for accuracy?"
    • A: Diagrams won't be graded for accuracy, except that everything is in proportion to everything else you draw. Also, if the worksheet asks for you to label something, you must draw it and label it. If you can't find it in the microscope, you can use your photo atlas or the in class diagrams as a reference.
  • Q: "I can't find this particular organelle, how do I label it if I can't find it?"
    • A: If you can't find something in your wet-mount or your prepared slide, then find photo from your photo atlas (or from another source) and re-draw the organism. Label everything in this new picture, and this time include the missing organelle.
  • Q: "All I can see is this tiny circle, what else am I suppose to draw?"
    • A: Draw everything you see, and make it big enough to reach the limits of the microscope. So include the shape and pattern of unknown structures, using dots and lines to describe them.

How to read the lab notes on this website:

• The amount of text in the outlines I write on this website do not really tell you what is important when you are thinking about what might be on the quizzes for each lab.
• The amount of time I spent in class talking about the concepts in the lab during my mini-lecture is the best way to determine what is going to be important for the quizzes.
  • So if I spend the most amount of time in my lecture on insulin metabolism, but I don't write much about it in these notes, it actually is really important when you study for the quiz.
  • On the other hand, if I write 5 pages about glucose metabolism in these notes, but I don't even talk about it during the actual lab, then it will never be on the quiz.

Tips when writing answer to quizzes and worksheets

• Write your answers as if you were writing to a 5th grader.
  • Explaining the tiny tiny details of your ideas is important. It would be better to over-explain than to underexplain.
  • Sometimes it's better to be vague, but not in this classroom environement.
• Q: "But Rhett, if I explain everything, and I write one thing out of 10 that is wrong, you'll count that wrong! So why should I write everything down?"
  • A: I will only count off points if your logic and your concepts are wrong. If your logic is correct but your concepts are wrong, I will still give you credit. On the other hand, if your concepts are right and your logic is wrong, then I will not give you credit.
    • How much credit will I give when your logic is correct but your concepts are wrong? It depends how wrong they are. If you try to explain that thunder is the result of huge giants in the sky bowling, then I will probably not give you credit because even though the logic is good (yes, it's possible that this would cause thunder), the concepts are no where near correct.
    • I give credit for effort, creativity, and logic as well as concepts.
• Examples:
  • Question on a quiz: "What is the difference between a hormone and an enzyme."
  • Two answers:
    • 1. "Steroids build muscles and pepsin breaks down proteins."
    • 2. "Hormones create changes in a cell's function, such as in muscle cell growth and enzymes create changes in molecules, such as in metabolizing carbohydrates."
  • Answer #1 is bad and #2 is good.
    • 1. This answer, while correct in the specifics, does not explain the difference between what are enzymes and what are hormones and why they are not the same.
    • 2. This answer describes in general what is a hormone and in general what is an enzyme, and since these are not the same definitions, it provides a logical explanation why they are different.
  • Overall: I will ask a lot of questions which ask you to make conclusions about ideas. Explaining why you think your answer is right is the best way to explain your logic.